by MV Kasi
Table of Contents
COPYRIGHT
DESCRIPTION
BOOKS by MV KASI
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Preview of Book Two – THOSE SAME OLD DESIRES
ABOUT AUTHOR
MV KASI Book Links
THE HOLIDAY AFFAIR - SAMPLE
SOULLESS – SAMPLE
That Same Old Love
All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2016 by MV Kasi
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
EXCERPT
"Mahi, stop it," he growled. "Stop taunting me with your innuendos. They are not funny anymore."
Her smile dropped as she felt her awareness grow rapidly. She didn't know if the tingling sensation in her body was due to his nearness or because of the medication. But from the past five nights, the sight of his almost bare body and her reaction to it, kept her lying awake.
She wanted him. Not as some gentle romantic companion to talk to, or to hold hands with, but in the most basic primitive sense.
"I'm not taunting you Samrat...or maybe I was. I don't know. But I do know that I really want you," she told him, looking at him boldly without a shred of coyness.
He looked angry at her confession and slowly came towards the bed to sit next to her.
"Mahi, Stop. Stop playing with fire or you'll get burned. If you have any idea about what I would do to you, if I took you up on your offer, you'll run away screaming. So stop it," he warned her softly.
She quirked an eyebrow at his overly clichéd and dramatic statement. Any other time, she would have laughed loudly on his face, and made a smart ass comment. But right then, she was mesmerized and could feel the electricity crackling around them.
"Stop. It," he gritted at her bold stare.
"Make me," she dared him, staring in fascination at his strong square jaw that was clenched tightly, making his chin dimple look very lick worthy.
His hands were fisted, and he was trying very hard to not jump on her, and attack her like a hungry animal. The past three months of unrequited lust were rushing through his mind and body, making him crazy. I have to get away from here!
"You need to come with a warning sign!" he growled out in frustration.
Before he could drag himself away, Mahi caught his decorative duppatta around his neck and pulled him towards her. Samrat half expected her to be teasing him again, but his brain shut down completely when he felt her lips on his.
That Same Old Love
Match Made In Hell Series—Book One
By MV Kasi
DESCRIPTION
Mahi is back to India. All she wants to do is to start over and distance herself from her past. But her path to the new beginning is challenged by her rude and grumpy neighbor, who refuses to believe in anything nice about her.
Samrat, a former class nerd—and one of Mahi's victims—is now an extremely successful entrepreneur (No thanks to her). He would rather spend his days and nights, inventing things and running his company than be bothered by the annoyingly cheerful and maddening woman. And Mahi could swear up and down that she no longer means any harm to him or his family, but he knew she would be up to no good soon. Adding to his troubles was also the fact that Mahi was now working for his company at the same office.
Will these former enemies stay away from each other without getting caught in a fierce, but unwanted attraction? Or will they fall victim to—That Same Old Love.
WARNING: Contains sexual content and some adult themes that are intended for mature reading audiences.
Books by MV KASI
Match Made in Hell Series
THAT SAME OLD LOVE
THOSE SAME OLD DESIRES
THE HOLIDAY AFFAIR
The Revenge Games
SOULLESS
RUTHLESS (JUNE 2017)
CHAPTER 1
Mahi was bored.
She was stuck inside a classroom on the last day of finals. Everyone, including the teachers and parents said that starting tomorrow their real lives would begin.
Unlike her, the other students were probably anxious or already excited, since it was officially the end of their college days. She would be excited too, if only she could get the most tedious part of checking her answers out of the way.
But as usual, her mind drifted to more interesting topics instead. Especially to the love of her life.
Sidhu.
She sighed dreamily. Sidhu was the most gorgeous guy in the college and a lot of girls had a huge crush on him. But Sidhu was with her, and had been her boyfriend right from the beginning of their college days.
Two more months and then, she and Sidhu would be gone far away from this place to be finally together. Poor Sidhu thought that they were simply going to pursue their Masters degrees at the same university. But what he didn't know was that both of them would be together in every sense of the word.
Mahi grinned, imagining Sidhu's expression, when he finally discovers that his future roommate was actually his girlfriend, and not some guy like he had planned. She had been chatting online with him from the past few weeks using a guy's name.
Considering all the silly tricks Sidhu pulled over her in the past four years, this trick was a small one to get back at him. And she had to pull it on him, mostly because she knew he wouldn't agree to live together. He had some old fashioned ideas about waiting until marriage.
But they were crazy about each other and loved each other deeply.
Her smile slowly changed into that of anticipation as she recalled her plans for the next day. Both of them were spending the entire day alone at his house, since his parents were away for a few days. She was supposed to go with him later that afternoon too, but her father had specifically asked her to come home early.
Apparently, her father had something important to discuss with her. And considering how rare it was for her father to have any conversation with her, let alone an important one, she was intrigued. And even more so, since her usually hypercritical mother was also seemingly less critical from the past one week.
Something was definitely up.
She shook her head and thought once again of Sidhu. I know he'll forgive me. It won't be all that bad to have me as his roomie. Especially when he finds out that I'm even learning to cook for his sake.
She grinned slowly, recalling how her friends wanted to help her in that initiative by smuggling a new stack of dirty novels into her bag. She was to read them, and then try some of the interesting scenes on Sidhu, making him want to live with her.
"Thirty more minutes to go!" a loud announcement was made.
Still smiling, Mahi began to stretch her neck slightly, getting prepared to check her answers. But soon she froze, when she noticed a strangely behaving guy seated across her, a couple of rows at the front. He was opening a text book sneakily and cheating in the exam.
Normally she wouldn't give a damn. But what got her attention and also removed the smile from her face was the tall guy sitting right next to the cheater.
Her eyes narrowed as she watched him.
Samrat Reddy.
Student extraordinaire with an extremely brilliant and innovative mind. Or at least that's what all the professors said about him while singing his praises. But if anyone were to ask her, she would say that Samrat was just an arrogant nerd, who had insulted her one too many times. And mostly because of his equally nerdy sister, who was easily frightened and naive enough to need her brother's protection.
She scoffed, still watching him. Samrat was gazing broodingly at a distance, as though thinking of a solution to all the world's problems using that geeky head of his.
Hahh! Let's see how Tarzan puts that so called brilliant mind to use and gets out of this problem, she thought with a smirk, formulating a quick plan.
"Excuse me sir," she called loudly to the person monitoring their exam.
Luckily that man wasn't one of their professors or associated to their university in any way.
As usual everyone turned towards her, including that nerd, Samrat. In fact, he was watching her with his usual expression, that he specifically reserved for her—a combination of both disdain and a long-suffering frown.
She looked away quickly from him, and put on her most concerned expression, before dramatically announcing, "I have something very troubling to report."
CHAPTER 2
Fourteen years later
"Oh god! No! No. No. No. No!"
Mahi was still staring into her messy purse. She had rummaged through it plenty of times to know that the house key was definitely missing. And also enough to know that she would have to go to the neighbor's house and ask them for the emergency spare key.
She was bone tired and hungry after a long journey from San Francisco to Hyderabad, which was made even longer due to a missed flight connection.
She was really looking forward to crashing in her childhood home the moment she entered inside. And now, she had to find a way to get inside the damn house first.
"Great. Just great. And it's not even six in the morning," she muttered, looking towards the neighboring houses.
Almost all of the homes had been renovated in some way or the other over the past fourteen years. Although not as much as the opposite house.
The opposite house was currently occupied since the lights were turned on the top floor. And she thought she even saw someone's shadow move.
But wow! It wasn't anything like the modest two-leveled structure from before.
Someone had renovated or most likely razed and built from ground up. Whoever designed it, must like building over-the-top energy efficient ultra-modern houses. The house was a stark white structure with lots of shiny brown wooden edges and plenty of glass windows. The sloped roofs around the curvy balconies had plenty of solar panels on top of them that were reflecting light.
It definitely looked odd within the homey looking houses around.
"You need to focus!" she muttered to herself as she peeled her eyes away from the house. She had plenty of time to gawk at the odd looking house from her balcony if she could get inside first.
"Okay then..." she said tiredly and walked across the street.
She rang the neighbor's doorbell a few times and waited impatiently. "Oh come on. Hurry up and open already," she muttered.
On the fourth or maybe the fifth ring, she heard footsteps inside, and then the door was finally opened by a really tall and broad man, who stood staring or rather glaring down at her with a grim expression.
"Hello, Maha Lakshmi Challuri," he said ominously.
For a second, she was really surprised and was wondering how he knew her name. Smiling politely, she was just about to ask him to excuse her for the odd hour, and then request him for the spare key. But when she looked at his face properly, especially at the thin eyebrow scar, she was shell shocked.
"Tarzan?" she blurted out his nickname from their college days, remembering it too late that he hated that name with a passion.
His face grew even grimmer, which she didn't think could be possible. And he also stood up straighter, appearing even more dangerous with his rugged features and his steely narrow eyed stare.
"No. It's Samrat Reddy," he growled.
She was still gaping at him in shock.
It has been close to fourteen years since she last saw him, and in those years he managed to fill out his tall, broad, but painfully bony body. His face had never been cute or boyish even during their college days, but now he looked even more raw and masculine, like one of those famous actors in the cowboy movies, who looked dangerous, and ready to shoot and protect their property from the trespassers. The thin T-shirt wasn't doing a great job of concealing his impressive body either. And his hair was styled in a short, but deliberately messy way. Fourteen years ago, it had been simply falling messily over his eyes and ears.
He was currently looming threateningly, giving her a quick sweeping look from the top of her head to the bottom of her four inch platform heels, with a barely concealed thin lipped sneer. He had often given her similar looks during their college days, and it usually meant that she wasn't worth noticing or even wasting time on.
That same old bloody look made her dormant attention seeking insecure persona rear its ugly head.
"Why the hell are you still living here?" she asked him in a surly tone.
He raised an eyebrow at her tone. "Why is that any of your business?" he asked icily. "And is that why you rang my bell so many times this early in the morning? Simply to ask me why I lived here? Now, if you'll excuse me, unlike you, I'm rather busy."
He was just about to close the door, but had to stop when she put her foot in between and said, "Wait!"
"What?" he snapped impatiently.
She was annoyed at his rudeness. But beggars can't be choosers. And she really needed the spare key and also had to use a bathroom.
Fidgeting a little and feeling ridiculous about the entire situation, she used her most friendly and polite tone. "I lost my house keys and my parents told me that they kept a spare key here...I also need to use your bathroom urgently, and then borrow your phone to make a few calls...since I don't have a phone yet."
He didn't move or respond to her for a few seconds. "Quite a list of demands. You really haven't changed much, have you? Demanding as ever," he said, shaking his head and sneering slightly. But he thankfully moved aside. "Come in. The guest bathroom is to the right, next to the elevator."
She didn't want to argue with him or get defensive about his inaccurate deductions.
Quickly going into his house, she found the bathroom.
After a while, when she was washing her hands, she stared at the white marble lined bright bathroom. There were way too many buttons next to the shower cubicle.
Shaking her head slightly, she went out to the living room and took in her surroundings.
No family pictures or anything resembling remotely homey even on the inside. The interior of the house had an extremely cold and sterile modern decor. There were several large control panels with touch screens and buttons. Even the furniture looked sleek and ultra-modern with buttons on them.
"Oh wow. Your house looks so futuristic rather than simply modern. I almost expect a couple of robots to pop out from your woodwork," she remarked while looking around.
"Maybe next time I decide to re-decorate the house, I'll call you for consultation," he replied stonily.
She was taken aback by his sarcastic response. Assessing him slowly, she realized that he had every right to be rude to her even after all these years because of what she had done to him. And she also knew that it was high time she apologized to him for that.
"Samrat...I'm really very sorry for what I did to you...you know...about the cheating allegations. I knew you didn't cheat and what I did was wrong...I even told my parents later about it, and asked them to speak with the dean and to our principal on your behalf."
She looked at him sincerely. "Until I was in San Francisco, I really didn't know that they had cancelled your scholarships or your admissions. Had I known, I would have definitely done something more to have them re-instated."
He was slowly simmering. "Oh really? I didn't know that the Stanford or MIT deans were on speaking terms with you."
"No. I-I meant that...that...come on, you know what I actually mean."
"I don't. Please do let me know what you actually mean."
Based on his expression, Mahi knew he wasn't ready to hear anything from her, let alone forgive her. She could fall on his feet and beg for forgiveness, but he wouldn't relent.
"It was a very long time ago, Samrat."
She knew he deserved a better apology. Maybe once she was well rested and cleaned up, she'd meet him again to apologize properly.
"Anyway, can I get the spare key now?" And then she remembered that she had to let someone know of her arrival. "Also, can I borrow your phone to make a couple of phone calls? One of them is an international call."